Today's Seattle Times reports that "County elections office gets beefed up"
King County Executive Ron Sims has temporarily reassigned two veteran managers to help run this fall's elections ... In all, more than a dozen employees from other departments are moving to the Elections Section to help with the Sept. 20 primary and Nov. 8 general election.In other words, all they're doing is stuffing the office with a bunch of Sims loyalists who have no elections experience. That's all filler and no beef. Sims also
will seek $500,000 to pay for a "turnaround team" that would make longer-term changes in the dysfunctional election operation.The primary cause of the dysfunction is Ron Sims himself. The only "turnaround team" needed here is David Irons. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 11, 2005 10:02 AM | Email This
The bottom line answer is that it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to fire a government employee. Look what happened with the lawyer in the AG Fraudiore's office who couldn't get an appeal filed on time. It cost the taxpayers something like $87 million for missing the appeal and then the lawyer recieved $millions in compensation for being "unlawfully" terminated. How many of the caseworkers at DSHS have been fired when their carelessness resulted in grievious harm to the people they were supposed to be watching out for and lawsuits against the taxpayers?
Taking a government job is for all practical purposes, employment for life.
And the big government folks wonder why some of us do not think government serves the taxpayers well.
I yeild my soapbox.
Posted by: JC Bob on August 11, 2005 10:33 AMYou'd probably wouldn't get very good odds in Vegas on "total morons" for those two. :-)
Besides, with the Unions now running the government (story on Fox's Brit Hume last night) no one can get fired and they all get paid more for not doing anything.
An aside, of the 2 Billion for the Viaduct, 40% is labor for unions to do the job in 2x longer than the normal worker and 30% to fight the lawsuit to save the cockroach and bums habitat.
Posted by: Dengle on August 11, 2005 10:38 AMOne of the several reasons why the elections of 2004 were such a mess is because there were a few employees and managers who had no idea what they were doing. Procedures and policies were changed mid stream, some weren't followed at all. Does anyone think stuffing the office full of people (excluding Jim Buck) from other King County Government departments who don't have elections experience is going to help?
After reading this article I have even less trust in the elections system here in King County. A reasonable common sense solution to the problem would have been to let go the weakest employees, and promote your best and brightest. Instead all the weak links are still in place and you add more people to the department who are weak links based on lack of experience with a little more then a month before election season? On what planet does this make any sense?
Posted by: Joe on August 11, 2005 10:47 AMAdditionally, this is just another attempt to distract the public from the fraud and theft that took place during the last election by highlighting the incompetence. The same defense worked perfectly for Clinton when the focus was shifted away from perjury and obstruction of justice towards sexual indiscretions.
I can't decide if Sims is bold or just desperate.
Posted by: Mr. Grabbit on August 11, 2005 11:11 AMJCBob has it right. The ony turnaround team we need is a team installing a new revolving ('turn around' firing) door in the county offices.
Shuffle a dozen dirty diapers around in any numerical grouping--same result--still stinks.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 11, 2005 11:15 AM"The temporary workers — and 14 soon-to-be-hired permanent employees — will work under Dean Logan, director of records, elections and licensing services.
"What we learned in the 2004 election is that the current staff size isn't adequate to run an election like that," Triplett said.
Logan's future remains unclear.
"If the next two elections go as we expect — that is, they go well — then I think Dean has a long and bright future at King County. ... If they don't go well, I think we're all going to have some issues."
So Triplett says that they are gonna let Dean Logan learn on the job at the expense of fair elections so he can have a long and bright future? And just how does Triplett define an "election that goes well"? One with unjust results that favor Democrats?
And what does he mean by "If they don't go well, I think we're all going to have some issues." Mr. Triplett, we already have some serious issues with Dean Logan. Wake up dude!
Posted by: Gary on August 11, 2005 11:36 AM- Fire the leaders of the department immediately.
- Not lend temporary workers because they don't have elections experience.
- Not use an outside SWAT team to restructure the office long-term.
- Wait for the problem to be miraculously solved by David Irons, who has experience running cable TV companies.
Posted by: Joe on August 11, 2005 01:01 PM
Now I don't know whether the elections office is adding watchers rather than workers, but that's what it sounds like to me. So these extra people may, even if they have the best of intentions, make matters worse.
Posted by: Jim Miller on August 11, 2005 01:13 PMYes we need David Irons as our executive, he will bring common sense and accountability back to the office.
We also need to change the balance of power at the Council level so that David can get things done and not just do damage control.
My #1 priority once elected is to see that there is a complete scrubbing of the voter roles, preferably by re-registration, and a top to bottom house cleaning of the elections department.
We have documented proof that documents were falsified yet all they do is put people on 30 days paid vacation and call it "administrative leave". We need a new method of dealing with those that are not willing, or able, to do their job, it's called a pink slip.
King County Government is out of control and if we send 9 incumbents back to serve on the council we deserve what we get.
Temporarily stuffing the department with even more untrained and unknowledgeable loyal Sims employees does not constitute an improvement or a "fix", although they might "find" enough votes to keep Sims in office.
Agree with Jimmie and his creative visuals...just more dirty diapers, and they all smell.
Bruce...sometimes it's more about management skills, and less about which career you apply them to. My one interaction with David Irons had nothing to do with cable TV, but he and his office investigated and resolved my issue. So my impression of Mr. Irons is more favorable than of someone with management skills that are proven to be faulty, such as Mr. Sims.
Posted by: dl on August 11, 2005 01:47 PMAs an elections reform move, you hire the whole damn village--"tinkers, tailors, soldiers, spies;" hey--now I know where that village idiot went--KC elections dept!
Shakespeare's "groundlings" reincarnated and on the payroll;
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on August 11, 2005 01:52 PMWhat has KC done constructive to fix the elections mess?
The Task Farce yielded no constructive critism, being appointed by Sims.
What do you expect, if you'd been around here since Nov. you'd have seen a lot of common sense practical solutions to fixing the elections.
Sims and cabal are insane (doing the same thing and expecting a different result) appointing 2 Sims insiders without elections experience is just another coat of white wash on a decaying corpse with another "see it looks better now" line of malarky.
Sims has proven time and again he has no interest in fixing the problem only maintaining power. Since he won't listen expect a bit of snarkiness.
Posted by: JCM on August 11, 2005 02:25 PMDear ,
I wrote to you in May about the lengths to which Democrats went in an attempt to influence the outcome of the 2004 elections, specifically, the Washington State Governor's race. Our Republican candidate, Dino Rossi, actually won the election, and then the recount, before then Democrat-controlled King County "found" 566 new votes just in time for a second recount, enough to overturn the results of Election Day and the first recount. The judge who presided over the court case that followed, actually said "this election may not be set aside simply because the number of fraudulent votes exceeds the margin of victory" when he issued his ruling against the Republican challenge.
Now, The American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund (ACVR Legislative Fund), a non-partisan, non-profit organization has released a new report documenting how thousands of Americans were disenfranchised during the 2004 elections because paid Democrat operatives were heavily involved in voter intimidation and suppression.
A few of examples include:
Coordinated efforts by certain "non-partisan" organizations to disrupt the election process in at least 12 states through voter registration fraud
Democrat operatives convicted for tire-slashing on GOP election day vans in Milwaukee
An Ohio court order stopping Democrat operatives from calling Republican voters telling them the wrong date for the election, and location for polling places
The report also indicated that the following were the top 5 "hot spots" in the nation for voter fraud:
1. Philadelphia, PA
2. Milwaukee, WI
3. Seattle, WA
4. St. Louis, MO/East St. Louis, IL
5. Cleveland, OH
We encourage you to view the ACVR report in it's entirety at www.ac4vr.com and forward this to your friends and family.
Fight back today by calling talk radio and writing letters to the editor describing the Democrats' efforts to undermine American's voting system.
Sincerely,
Michael DuHaime
RNC Political Director
Gary,
What Triplett REALLY means is....
"If the next two elections go as we expect — that is, they go well..(That is - if we are able to once again stuff the ballots and produce a Democrat winner) — then I think Dean has a long and bright future at King County.(Because our boy Ron Sims will still be in office and wont fire Logan..) ... If they don't go well, ( That is - if we are caught cheating this time..) I think we're all going to have some issues." (I think we are all going down and will face prison time!)
As far as the *New and Improved* Ron Sims Election Turnaround Team.....? Pulease!!! Ron Sims has a long, expensive and failed history of *Teams*, *Committees* and *Task Forces*! The People of this county have had it with him! He is outta here!
Ron Sims is the epitome of putting a bandaid on a broken leg! Not only does it NOT fix the problem - it irritates that skin!
Bring on David Irons for King County Executive ..(aka. The Turnaround Team!)
Hmm, or, reduce my 466.00 per month tax to say, minus 65%?
Thanks Ron... I will do my best to see you out of office, polish up your resume.
Posted by: Ted Bundy on August 12, 2005 05:50 PM